I love dressage but I don't do it because it is too expensive and my horse is a big chunky Quarter Horse cross. With a huge butt. Just doesn't work for me :). I do hear the one about making the horse collect to much... I think it looks pretty.

I've always thought dressage is fun to watch and I personally don't find it boring. However I used to think it was a more 'posh' persons discipline and that only posh riders get big with dressage. I love the style and I like how, I can't find a word to describe properly, but how classy it is, with the smart attire. I love watching it because you see how the horse moves and how talented they are for learning/teaching it (horse&rider&trainers) but that applies for all different disciplines that i've seen to do with horses. But it is expensive and there is sometimes a stereotype that dressage people are snobs, althought this forum has shown me different, i've seen people on here who are defiantly not snobs who ride dressage but are in fact down to earth, lovely people so that's just a stereotype imo. Meh, that's all I can think of now :)

I don't do dressage because I don't want to mess with my horses natural gaits. Its also the reason why I don't specialize in western pleasure either though. I prefer sticking to events where he can move out as he pleases and the pursuit of such a rigid idea of perfectionism doesn't appeal to me.Posted via Mobile Device

I love watching dressage! I think it's beautiful.
Although, I do believe it just looks better with more warmblood-y looking horses than a stock horse... & that's all I ride.
But for me, I've always wanted to learn dressage, but I have a hip that's two inches higher than the other one & it makes me very uneven & I have to ride a certain way. I can't do many things with my leg cues without getting "stuck" in my socket. So if I did learn dressage, I probably couldn't go very high in levels. :/

I have never taken dressage lesson, at one time I felt it was for stuffed shirts, now I enjoy watching dressage especially the uper levels, the lipizzaners for for example. The training and communication between horse and rider is fun for me to see.
The other reason I had a less then good opinion of dressage is the lower levels are a little on the...slow or boring side.
Lastly some of the people I have known were a "little" on the snobby or "if you don't ride dressage you don't really ride" side of things.
I would enjoy taking dressage lessons I just don't have access to the possibility or time to take lessons. A cowboy dressage rider there are not enough of those in the world for sure.

I enjoy watching most dressage. If I had TV and time, I would watch it when the competitions are on.

I would don't do it because 1. I don't know enough on my own 2. Don't know enough to be able to learn on my own and train a horse for it at the same time 3. Can't afford a trained dressage horse 4. Would probably wreck a trained dressage horse 5. Don't have a suitable space in my backyard for it and not willing to travel away from home to learn/partake 6. Can't see the point in it unless you are competing (why would I do this in my backyard?) 7. I'm not competitive 8. I don't have patience for most people and going to shows involves talking to people 9. Don't have the patience for the politics that goes on at shows 10. Can't afford what is necessary for showing 11. I ride to relax, not work

OK, that's enough. But it is really cool to watch and I'd actually love to meet a dressage person that is down to earth and close to me so from time to time I could syphon off some of that knowledge! :)

Something to keep in mind... dressage means training in French. I think that any correctly trained horse has some level of dressage (in a training sense) . In the very lower levels as long as your horse can walk and trot and be ok with some light contact you'll be fine. And you should be able to do it with any sound horse you don't need a special horse, for at least the lower levels -looks at scruffy, stocky, ill - built dressage pony in yard. -

Before I did dressage I used to think that it wasn't that fun. That was a long time ago. When I was 8. Don't say something is boring or not fun when you haven't tried it!

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